FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
1. THE PONY INTERVIEW WITH SERGE BIELANKO OF MARAH
2. CALENDAR OF EVENTS
This Week at The Stone Pony: The Les Claypool Frog Brigade (Tuesday), Joe D'Urso and Stone Caravan, Boccigalupe and the Bad Boys, Danny White (Wednesday), Sprout (Friday), Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers, Marah (Saturday), Lisa Marie Presley, John Eddie (Sunday)
New on the Pony Calendar: Sprout (July 18), Xit 88 (July 25), 2003 JerseyShows.com Battle of Bands Finals (July 27), Blues Traveler (August 2), Warped Tour After Party Beer and Bar-B-Que (August 10), Fiend Fest 2003 with The Misfits, The Damned and more (August 16), A Walk Down Memory Lane with The Sensational Soul Cruisers (August 24), Billy Idol (September 12), King's X and Fishbone (October 11), Bret Michaels of Poison (October 17)
Led by brothers Dave and Serge Bielanko, Philadelphia's own Marah, sporting a new supporting line-up, has been hard at word recording and producing their fourth album, following-up three diverse, passionate, swaggering and engaging records about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Despite their energy and strut, the records, Let's Cut the Crap & Hook up Later on Tonight (1998), Kids in Philly (2000) and Float Away with the Friday Night Gods (2002) still only hint at the reckless abandon and charming attraction that marks the band's live gigs. Fans can enjoy the show when Marah follows-up for Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers this Saturday evening, July 19, inside the club for a special long set. Serge Bielanko took a break from recording in their South Philly haunt to answer our questions and give Pony fans a first look at what the band's doing today and the upcoming release.
Your website boasts that Marah is the “last rock ‘n roll band”. What do you think is the state of rock and roll today; do you find yourselves listening to the radio as you travel, or just to CDs? Does a band ever risk creating music solely as a reaction to the problems they perceive in the music industry?
We aren't the last rock 'n' roll band, thank God. That would be a drag as far as I'm concerned. I dunno where exactly that little tag came from but, to be honest, I think it's sort of dumb. Maybe it came from a bumper sticker someone made once, I can't really remember.
I don't listen to all that much radio anymore for a lot of reasons, not all of them aesthetic ones. Radio has become sort of seriously formatted and all the more tame because of it. I like oldies radio, and here in Philly we have some cool hip-hop and jazz on the radio. Jazz endears to me because it always sounds so good to my untrained ear and Philly has a grand old hand in what is one of America's finest musical contributions to the world. As for rock radio and the "future of rock 'n' roll", damn ... I just don't know. Things change. No form of Pop Culture can survive in peak form forever. And that includes rock. We just do what we do and try and do it as well as we'd expect from a band we might pay to go and see. I believe there are some fantastic bands out there. And I believe that when all is said and done some people might look back one day and say: "Yeah, Marah: they were a great one." At least, that's what we shoot for.
I don't know for sure whether there are too many artists whose work reflects the problems they recognize in the music industry. Those problems have always existed in some fashion. The longer you're around in the music business, the more you realize what a gaping outhouse hole it really is; the upper echelons are icky, the players are often slippery, marketing is a critical lifeline, and originality is easily crushed beneath the thick soles of what certain people deem is easiest to sell fast and a lot. And you learn and adjust. But, when it comes to your work, your music, well, I expect that most artists do their best and then pray that someone notices. I'm proud of how we've been able to persevere and continue to do our best. Many wonderful talents never get as far as us. And, someday, we'll put Marah into a burlap bag, put some hollow points into her, and lay her down in a shallow grave out near Newark Airport. But, not yet.
You moved from Philadelphia to Ireland prior to writing the songs from your last album, “Float Away with the Friday Night Gods”, and then relocated to London, but have since returned to South Philly. How did the change of scenery affect your creative process, and how does it feel to be back home for this go around?
Yeah, we've gone to Ireland to write. Most of this new record was written by my brother and I living in Brooklyn and London, England respectively. Change is good for us. I personally thrive on it and find that too much time in one place makes me stagnant and uninspired. We're from Philly, so that city will always be at the center of who we are. Always. And, as far as rock 'n' roll goes, I am very thankful for that. It's a tough town, where even the weather seems so f*cked up that it's either sweltering hot and people are shooting guns off to try and make a breeze or it's three degrees and raining icy spears. That sense of desperation, of literally willing to commit a crime to not be second best, makes hungry Philadelphians among the most tenacious people in this world, I think. And, that has all come though on several levels in our music and lyrics up to this day. But, I also need to see the world, to stand on streets where no one even speaks my language and lose myself. That will never change for me, and for a lot of artists
There have been discussions on your website of doing three Marah albums this year, two proper studio albums and one Christmas album. Where do all of these plans stand right now, and what sort of output do you realistically hope to put out over the next six months or so? Does this means that you’ve got tons of material ready to go, or are you still in a writing process?
Realistically, I want Marah to be able to record as much music as possible. All of us in the band want that. Making a grand traditional Christmas record without a hint of pretension has always been something Dave and I have dreamed of. We are Christmas people, man. Decorations, music, food, wine, lights, and the lift in mood that comes with the season is one of life's great joys. So, we'd like to leave something behind for people that feel the same way. Will we do that and another record this year? I dunno. But, we work very hard and so if we don't collapse dead then anything is possible.
We're at work on our new record literally as I write this. We're here in South Philly, above Frank's Auto where we've made two records in the past. It suits us, suits our music, suits the methods to our madness. No one bothers us. We do things the way we want, end of story. And I'm so excited about it all right now. We're creating a record we once only dreamed of having to our name. It's really confusing and difficult at times as we're so very limited gear-wise and all. But, I don't know, my bro is turning into some sort of Brian Wilson-type: obsessed with giving birth to his masterpiece. It's a really vital and wild time to be involved with Marah.
“Float Away” was clearly a different direction for the band, one that you took some flak for, shaped in part by producer Owen Morris. Are you still planning on producing the upcoming records yourselves, and what are you looking to accomplish in terms of your sound, and the evolution of the band? Do you think you’ll be missing something not having a producer evaluate each track and provide some outside direction?
We're producing the record ourselves with the help of two great and talented friends, Kirk "The Barber" from Brooklyn, NY, and Mike Mussamano, also from there. So, the outside opinions are there when we need them. Which raises an interesting question, because when we make a record we are so damn hard on ourselves that the lack of opinions beyond those working on the record can often be sorely missed. It is entirely possible to think your way to a sub-par record, you know. But, we've learned from the past and do all we can to pull back at times when we're freaking out. But, we're strange people trying to make something that lives a lot longer than even the band itself, so that always leads to obscene neurosis at times. Oh, well, it's always worth it six months later when you listen to your record with your mates and a cold beer and laugh about how very f*cked up you were acting.
I love all of our records for various reasons. Mostly because we always did what we wanted to do, no matter what the impending costs to pay were. I admire that in other artists and I am glad we've maintained that trait. We move the band in the direction of our hearts, as cliché as that may seem. Every lyric we write and every note we pop or pluck, we think about it and try and do our best.
You received a lot of praise for being adventurous and taking your music in a new direction with the latest album, but some fans are clearly feeling alienated by that disc compared to the first two. Do you feel it’s strange that some fans want you to recreate the same sounds over and over again, or can you understand those who would want you to stick with the comfortable and familiar?
Music is personal. It's alone with you in the car in traffic, it's there to console you after a rough day at work, you make love to it and play it to your newborn baby and even get buried to the final strains of it. So, there ain't nobody nowhere who likes their music the same as you do. Right? I love our fans; they are loyal, most of them are pretty intelligent, and many of them are battle-ready opinionated. That's a good thing. It means they care. And we'd be nowhere without them. But, I think we've had a great ride together thus far. We've done whatever we wanted and most of them have let us know exactly what they think of our work. Still, I believe they respect us for our decisions and continue to love the band because something in us appeals to their particular desires when it comes to music. That's the best that I can explain anything. I would never consider my opinion to be worth a buck more or less than theirs. It's music and you're gonna like it or you ain't.
Are you guys serious about trying to produce some sort of DVD, a documentary or concert film, about the band? Are you thinking of a straightforward music DVD of some sort, perhaps with lots of live footage, or something more artsy and conceptual?
There is a documentary being filmed, as it has been for the last six months, by Daryll Woon, a Brooklyn film-maker. He has been in my damn face for the entire duration of the recording of this record, and I believe he has captured quite a story. So, yeah, they'll be a DVD someday before too long, but that's D. Woon's project and not ours. We just do our thing and he hides cameras all over and sh*t. It won't be a concert film, I know that much. It'll be more a look at a band making a record for the love of it, without a deal, without any money, without anything except hope. At least, that's what I've been watching go down here for months.
Any idea of how you’ll be releasing any of the new material? Would you consider signing with a label of any sort, setting up something on your own, or finding outside distribution? Will you finish an album, and just start shopping it around, or are you prepared to just have the discs printed and sell them at shows or on the website?
We'll find a deal somewhere. This is gonna be a record someone is gonna want to put out. But, we chose to do it all on our own first, without any attachment. We're free, you see. We're a free American rock band borrowing, stealing, and conniving our way to the record of our lives. We didn't need any motherf*ckers from the business feeding off that nipple. Later. Not now. And if no one wants to put it out? Well, I'll see ya' on the streets of Paris, baby!
You once wrote once that a “half-written just spring to life in the studio itself.” Give us a picture how songs are worked out in the studio. Do you bring a finished idea, and keep bouncing it around until something special happens, or do you have a specific idea that you keeping working out until you get it right? Tape can be pretty expensive. Do you keep the machine running, or just turn it on when you think you’re ready for a good take?
Great question. Every artist does things differently in the studio. Here in our place we try and have most of the tune written and arranged beforehand, but there are always exceptions. Usually, we let ideas bleed in and over onto something recorded the way we wanted to hear it. At this point we're still writing, too; trying to outdo ourselves with some of the stuff we have. That's a first for us, but it's riveting and presents a challenging thread throughout the whole recording process. Can we be better ... right up to the wire. I like that. All the guys in the band are fantastic players, except me. I suck, but I can write, so I'm in. Mark's piano playing is world-class, and with a rhythm section of Jamie and Mike Abs playing alongside guys like Slo-Mo on the lapsteel and the Mighty Hoagy Wing on percussion, we can do just about anything that Dave or I can come up with. And with players of this caliber things can happen spontaneously even when the process might be a bit boring. When that happens, it's magic. And we keep it no matter what.
Sticking with the topic of songwriting: it is more difficult to write lyrics while working on album number four then it was starting out? Do you find that your experiences in the “music industry” have given you more fodder for material, or do you still find that you can draw new ideas from the same themes? How would you describe the differences in your songwriting styles as a duo, and do you each have certain traits that you admire in the other’s lyrical ability?
I think Dave and I have grown tremendously as writers over the last few years. I really do. We talked a bit before we began writing about what we wanted to say with this album. We discussed that our lives mirrored the reflections of a lot of people on Earth whose situations in everyday life face them with massive decisions, with moments of fear and sadness and temptation at every turn; when all they want is to be able to be happy, to relax in their own skin. We were faced with a lot of that over the past two years in our personal lives and in our musical lives. And we decided to write that into our record, because it's very Marah to be down and out and still have hope. As far as the material, well, I guess you find new ways to present what are, inevitably, old themes. Many of the themes that Radiohead play upon, William Shakespeare once tackled. Many of Ovid's Love Poem themes re-emerge in Motown, you know? I think we look around us, then look at ourselves, then write stories to reflect the combination therein. I love the writing the best and I take pride when people say we're good at it. So, feel free to tell me that at the Pony if any of you want to!
Your show at the Stone Pony on July 19th is being billed as a long set by the band, and you’ve mentioned that a lot of new music is going to be performed. Can you give us a preview of what’ve you got in mind for that gig, and how much from off the new album you expect to be showing off that night? Are there songs you might be performing live there for the first time?
Yeah, we'll put our ass out there on the line that night. We love the Pony and I don't know whether this'll be our last time being able to play in that old house again, so it'll be old, new, sweaty, and sexual. Damn, I wish it was tonight.
We try to give our readers a feel of what it's really like to be in a rock and roll band. Is there a way you might be able to sum it up for us?
It's funny that you should ask about that, as I've been involved for years in research regarding THE CONFEDERATE SPACE ADMINISTRATION (CASA). Most Americans aren't aware that in the waning days of the Civil War, the Southern leadership determined that if they could only put a man on the moon before General Grant surrounded Lee's Army, Lincoln would have no choice but to surrender to the "high ground" holders. For this purpose, a massive 200 foot wooden rocket was assembled near White Oak Swamp, VA and 10,000 pounds of black powder, 12 cannons loaded with grapeshot, and 50 pounds of dynamite were to be detonated at the base. (This was thought to be enough thrust to propel an entire company of Rebels to the moon). In any case, the black powder, cannons, and dynamite were ignited at 8:37am on January 11th 1865. As might be expected, the wooden rocket exploded, caught fire, and burned to the ground in under two minutes. The desperate project had failed. An observer noted that during the countdown, the final cheers of the doomed "Moon Fellers--Company A" was ... "BOYS, WE'SE A GOIN' TO THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!"
Marah's official website can be found at www.marah-usa.com.
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